Гопчак І. Scientific principles of preservation and revival of small rivers of Western Polissya of Ukraine

This dissertation is devoted to further development of theoretical bases regarding solutions to relevant scientific and applied problems which manifests itself in calls for transformation of management mechanism of use, preservation and revitalization of water resources of small rivers of the Western Polissya region of Ukraine, namely: their ecological status on the basis of normalization of anthropogenic load on their basins. On the basis of research and monitoring materials that reflect the water and environmental situation in the region and impact of anthropogenic activity on formation, mode and magnitude of runoff of small rivers, further assessment of anthropogenic load, natural and anthropogenic factors that determine their condition, and on their basis water-ecological zoning is developed and measures for change in ecological condition of small rivers of the Western Polissya are acted upon. Based on systematic research, a set of scientifically sound approaches to quantitative and qualitative assessment of the impact by individual indicators of natural and anthropogenic factors, as well as specific pollutants that affect the ecological status of the river and its basin, calculated environmentally acceptable volumes of water withdrawal from rivers, determined environmentally acceptable minimum water losses for the rivers of the region, which will help establish ways to restore the transformed ecosystems of small river basins and to introduce effective water protection measures for their conservation and recovery. A comprehensive assessment of the ecological status of river basins made it possible to identify the most dangerous areas in terms of anthropogenic load, which require priority measures to preserve or restore the ecosystem to its primordial state and to ensure environmentally safe living conditions. This will help focus all management efforts of economic entities on planning, development and implementation of water protection measures to improve water management and environmental status and decision-making process to improve overall quality of water management of small rivers in Ukrainian Western Polissya.